LDG Newsletter January 2010
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Contact: [email protected] Website: www.lotusdriversguide.com Year 03, issue 26 January 2010 The first words Welcome to the first issue of 2010 and a happy New Year! I always start working on the next newsletter hours after the previous one has been send, and I will work on it on an almost daily basis during the weeks to follow, collecting and using information from various sources. My aim is to produce a few pages with interesting items but this month there is so much to tell that I was able to fill more than a few pages. While I thought December would be a quiet month, the newsletter you are reading now kept growing and growing. Formula One news, the nicest Lotus show in England is moving, model car news, racing news, news on forthcoming events, etc. I hope you will find the following news items useful, please enjoy this issue! Ronald Ringma In this issue: • News from Group Lotus • New on the website • Lotus appoints new director of design • Annual Club Lotus Show is moving • Lotus Cup Europe - 2010 • Lotus F1 Racing announces more senior appointments • Lotus F1 Racing announces drivers • Will Lotus Cars become co-owner of the Lotus F1 Racing team? • F1 driver Jarno Trulli sits in his first Lotus • Lotus omnivore engine • Martin Brundle visits Lotus • Branson offers Lotus F1 boss a stewardess challenge • Total Sports Asia to do Lotus F1 Team sponsorship acquisition • Rumours: Will Kovalainen compete in a rally? • Model cars • Books and videos • Events • Downloads All previous issues of this newsletter are available as free downloads from my website. News from Group Lotus Read all about the news items in the press releases section of the website, please follow this link: http://www.lotusdriversguide.com/Press/index.php Lotus Drivers Guide newsletter, January 2010, page 1 Recently we did see: • Lotus appoints new director of design • Martin Brundle visits Lotus • Lotus Omnivore Engine – 10% Better Fuel Economy than Current Leading Gasoline Engines New on the website Of course new items have been added to several sections of the website. A complete overview of what is new can be found at the ‘news’ page on the website: http://www.lotusdriversguide.com/new.php . Lotus appoints new director of design Another Ferrari man is going to work for Lotus! After Dany Bahar, who was a sales executive for Ferrari, now Donato Coco is joining the Lotus staff. Group Lotus recently announced the appointment of Mr. Donato Coco as Director of Design for Group Lotus starting 04 January 2010. In this newly created role, Donato will lead all Lotus Design activities for Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering. Head of Lotus Design, Russell Carr will continue to work on both Lotus products and third party design work, an area which is growing rapidly especially in the emerging Asian markets. Dany Bahar, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus plc said, “The appointment of Donato Coco as the new Director of Design for Lotus puts even more prominence on design within Lotus and strengthens the already talented team. We have a very busy few years ahead of us as we are working on a new strategic business plan which will include the introduction of an all new range of Lotus cars and expansion of our third party design work.” More information in the press releases section of the website, please click here: http://www.lotusdriversguide.com/Press/index.php Annual Club Lotus Show is moving Here is some good news regarding the Club Lotus 2010 Lotus Show. Because of the destruction carried out at Donington the club will be moving its 2010 Show to the Three Counties Showground near Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW, England over the weekend of 17/18 April 2010. Although it is a forced move, this location has always been on a shortlist of possible venues in case the event had to move from Donington. Its central location is good being just SW of Birmingham with the M5 motorway about 10 minutes away. The showground itself is beautifully kept with carpeted and heated halls and lots of surrounding open grass and tarmac areas for parking Lotus cars - more than Donington in fact. Morgan Cars hold regular shows there along with plenty of other car clubs so the showground is used to hosting car enthusiasts and are very pleased Club Lotus is coming next year. It's also in a beautiful part of England with many other attractions for those making a weekend of it. As well as the usual attractions, the organisation will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lotus' first GP win when Stirling Moss won the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix. They will also be commemorating Jochen Rindt's World Championship of 1970 and looking forward to Lotus' return to F1. And how about the very popular live technical demonstrations and lectures? Full information is on the website: www.clublotus.co.uk Lotus Drivers Guide newsletter, January 2010, page 2 Lotus Cup Europe - 2010 In 2009 control of the series was handed to LoTRDC. The club had demonstrated its expertise in running the Elise Trophy series in the UK, which had grown from a nursery for experienced track day drivers taking their first steps into racing. This meant that a large pool of cars and drivers were encouraged to compete and with races combining both series, there have been healthy grids at every round. Most importantly was that there where separate Lotus only grids at Europe’s best circuits. This also introduced a fascinating dynamic between the UK drivers and their mainland counterparts – predictably the British drivers performed well in their own territory but many also put in some fine drives abroad. The series was split into three main classes, 2-Eleven for the track-based derivatives, Exige for the Exige Cup model and Production, which covered the normally-aspirated Elise models. 2010 will see a fourth class added for invite cars falling outside the existing 211, Exige and Production classes. This class is aimed at modified Elises, the Elise S, 340R's while some other modified cars may also be permitted. New season 2010 calendar: •30 April & 1 May - Nürburgring GP (Germany) •12-13 June – Snetterton Lotus Festival (UK) •10-11 July – Magny Cours (France) •31 July - 1 August – Brands Hatch GP (UK) •11-12 September – Zolder (Belgium) •1-3 October - Spa Francorchamps (Belgium) •23-24 October – Assen (Netherlands) All information can bee found here: http://www.lotuscupeurope.com (source: Lotus Cup Europe website) Lotus F1 Racing announces more senior appointments 06 December 2009 Lotus F1 Racing today announced more senior appointments as it gears up for its debut season in the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Mia Sharizman Ismail, currently CEO of the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM), will be joining Lotus F1 Racing as its Head of Operations (Asia). He will oversee selected areas of the team's operations that include promoting and nurturing alliances with motorsports bodies in the region. Mia Sharizman is also tasked with understudying the Lotus F1 race operations currently based in the UK with the aim of transferring knowledge and expertise back to Malaysia. At the same time, as part of its efforts to develop a full-fledged young driver programme for its future development, Lotus F1 Racing have also appointed former Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong as Head of Driver Development (Asia) alongside Nino Judge, the Team Principal of the UK-based Litespeed Formula 3 team, as Head of Driver Development (Europe). Lotus Drivers Guide newsletter, January 2010, page 3 Yoong and Judge will co-head Lotus F1 Racing's driver development programme that aims at nurturing up- and-coming driving talent in Malaysia as well as the Asian region and Europe. The programme is via an affiliation with Litespeed which have over 25 years experience running racing outfits at varying levels. More information in the press releases section of the website, please click here: http://www.lotusdriversguide.com/Press/Press_F1_Team.php Lotus F1 Racing announces drivers 14 December 2009 Lotus F1 Racing has today confirmed that Italy's Jarno Trulli, Finland's Heikki Kovalainen and Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy have joined the team to spearhead driving duties for its debut Formula 1 season in 2010. There has been much speculation surrounding the identity of Lotus F1 Racing's driver signings in recent weeks, but the appointment of Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz was made formal in an official announcement by Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, at which Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz were also present. 35-year-old Trulli is one of the most experienced, consistent racers in Formula 1 and unquestionably still one of the fastest men over a single lap. He is one of just a select few drivers to have tasted victory in Formula 1, and that at the jewel in the crown of Formula 1 racing, the Monaco Grand Prix. He has also finished in the top ten of the drivers' Championship table on seven occasions. Heikki's F1 career began in 2006 when he made his debut as a test driver. His appointment to the Lotus F1 Racing team will see the 28 year old Finn starting his fourth season in the Formula 1 World Championship and he brings with him a race winning reputation, confirmed by his first victory in Hungary in 2008, and a wealth of experience that will make a potent combination with fellow race driver Jarno Trulli and Fairuz Fauzy. 27-year-old Fauzy joins the team having previously held a Formula 1 testing role for the Spyker squad back in 2007.